Since the late Middle Ages, many popes
had tried to establish a clergy that was chaste, upright and disciplined.
The edicts of the Council of Trent (1541-1563) brought in their
wake both a stricter rule of life for the clergy and a faith renewal.
This renewal, along with a political environment that increasingly
emphasized teaching, led to the creation of numerous religious
communities and seminaries dedicated to the formation of the clergy
and to raising the intellectual and moral standard of their education.
These measures were put in place to counter the rise of Protestantism.
The reform adopted at the Council
of Trent was termed “Gregorian” in honour of Pope
Gregory VII (1015 or 1020 to 1085), who was one of the first
to affirm the power and the rights of the Holy See of Rome. The
Gregorian rite established a simple and concise Roman missal that
was to be adopted throughout most of Europe, allowing widespread
recital of the mass.
